(September 16) Jacques Montgolfier demonstrates a hot-air balloon to
Paris spectators. When no-one volunteers to take a ride, the craft
is launched from Versailles with a duck, a rooster, and a sheep as passengers.

(November) The British remove their last miltary presence in the United
States when they evacuate New York. Except they're still in Detroit and Chicago.

The Laki volcano in Iceland begins its eight-month eruption.
This eruption will kill most of the livestock in Iceland, one-fourth the
human population, and depress global temperatures by 4o C for
the next few years.